Author guidelines

By beginning the development of any paper, it is necessary to keep in mind some characteristics that facilitate the method in which an original document must be submitted to achieve uniformity and clarity. This is the purpose of the text below that we place at the disposal of those interested in publishing in Sinéctica. It contains the specifications required regarding the structure, form, notes, and bibliographical references. The Editorial Board of the journal reserves the possibility to make these instructions more flexible and to make any necessary modifications.

We must emphasize that Sinéctica only takes into consideration unpublished works that are not in an arbitration process with another journal. The content of the articles is the absolute responsibility of the authors.

Important note: If an article in Spanish is accepted for publication in our journal and the authors wish to publish it in English or in any other language, they should send the corresponding translation. The costs of this translation will be assumed by the authors. To guarantee its quality, the authors must present evidence (or a certificate) that the article was translated by a qualified professional. Sinéctica will only publish articles that meet this requirement.

General structure of the article

The article must have:

1. A title (of no more than 12 words).
2. Effective abstractsare concise and clearly state the article’s main contributions and findings. In this part there must be no abbreviations, initials, or acronyms. Please limit your abstract to a maximum of 200 words. Concise, informative, and engaging abstracts are especially important for online publishing. Short abstracts direct more readers to your work.
3. Abstract and keywords in Spanish.
4. Three to five keywords (except for reviews), which must conceptualize the main points addressed in the article.
5. An introductory part that includes at least real problems, as well as problems of knowledge about the object of study, which justify the creation of the article; objectives and methodology; as well as theoretical aspects when these are not discussed in a separate section.
6. The development: the argumentation and contribution of the author to the subject of study. All empirical information must have its source and theoretical referent.
7. Conclusions: final proposal reached after the analysis of the evidence, discussions, or premises. It must be a reflective reprocessing of the results with a high abstraction level and not a repetition of the results.
8. Bibliographical references.
9. It is important to clarify that Sinéctica does not accept footnotes, of either a bibliographical or explanatory character.

Technical presentation of the original

1. The works must be developed in Windows Microsoft Word or compatible, with number pages of 28 lines with 65 characters each, 12-point Arial font, justified paragraph.
2. All titles must be written in capital letters, 12 points, rounded font and in white. And the sections must be in italics, white, using upper and lower case.
3. The length of the research articles and essays must be a minimum of 18 pages and a maximum of 30 pages and reviews must have a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 4 pages. The Editorial Board may authorize works longer than 35 pages when they consider it pertinent.
4. Tables, graphs, and figures must contain successive Arabic numbering, centered title in rounded font, as well as source (as the case may be). They must express the idea by themselves, i.e., they must not require reading the text to be understood. This information must be inserted in the article in the precise location, and each must also be sent separately, in a .jpg file.
5. Any illustration or photograph must be credited and footnoted; and as with the previous elements, they must be uploaded in .jpg files.
6. Citations, when they are comprised of five full lines or more, must be separated from the body of text with a space of an upper and a lower line, without quotation marks, of a smaller font to that of the body of text and with a greater margin. Those that are comprised of up to four lines will be included in the text in quotation marks. If the citation is in another language, the translation must be included with a copy of the original text.
7. Words in a foreign language must be written in italics.

References

It is your responsibility to make sure that works are correctly cited, including carefully checking the spelling of titles, authors' names, internet addresses, etc.

Specifications for preparing the list of references 

1. All authors cited in the text should appear in the bibliographical references.
2. The reference of each author cited should be complete: author’s name, date of publication, title of the work, place of publication and publisher.
3. Sinéctica does not accept footnotes, except for the initial footnote to point out some aspect concerning the article, for example, financing, clarification of the article’s origin, etc.
4. Include the URL or doi of electronic publications cited in the bibliographical references.
5. The names of the authors cited should appear in full in the list of references without abbreviations.
6. If there is more than one reference from the same author, they are ordered by the most recent year.

Specifications for in-text citations

1. The author-date citation method is used: the author’s surname and year of publication are inserted in the proper place within the text. Example:

                     - According to Bull (2004) or (Bull, 2004)

2. In a paragraph it is not necessary to include the year in subsequent references to a study, as long as it is not confused with other studies cited in the article. Example:

                     - In a recent study of reaction times, Walker (2000) described the method… Walked also found that…

3. If there are three authors, all are cited always.
4. d) If there are more than three authors, the first one is cited followed byet al. Example:

                     - (Orozco et al., 2004).

5. Corporate authors are written in full in the first citation and abbreviated thereafter. Example:

                     - (World Health Organization [WHO], 1994)

                     - (WHO, 1994)

6. When the general idea of a work is referred to, no page number is required.
7. When a work does not have an author, the first words of the title or article and the year are cited in the text. Italics are used for books, but not for articles. Example:

                     - (Niños de la calle, 2003)

                     - (La situación política de México, 2005)

8. Citations of two or more works within the same parentheses should appear in the same order as in the list of references. Example:

                     - (Morales, 1984, 1992)

9. Works by the same author with the same date of publication are identified with the suffixes a, b, c, and so on, after the year. The suffixes are placed in the list of references in alphabetical order by title. Example:

                     - (González, 2004a and 2004b).

10. Two or more works by different authors who are cited within one pair of parentheses are placed in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname. Citations are separated by semicolons. Example:

                     - (Balderas, 1980; Cardona, 2007; Funk, 1990)

11. When a work has no publication date, the abbreviation s.f. (no date, in its initials in Spanish) is written after the surname. Example:

                     - (Minor, s.f.)

12. To cite a specific part of a source, the page, chapter, figure, or table is indicated after the year and in abbreviated form. Example:

                     - (Bustamante, 2004, p. 60)

                     - (Maldonado, 1999, chap. 3)

13. For references to interviews in the text, the last name, interview, and year of the interview should appear in parentheses. Example:

                     - (López, interview, 2003).

14. A reference to information without an author, contained in the press, should be presented as follows: newspaper, abbreviated date, page of the section. Example:

                     - (Panorama, November 7, 2003, pp. 1-3).

15. Laws are cited with corporate author and year. Example:

                     - (National Assembly, 2000).

16. Personal communications are cited only in the text. The initial of the correspondent’s first name plus surname are provided, along with the date. Example:

                     - T. Godínez (personal communication, April 18, 2001)